What's the difference between prattle and talk?

Prattle


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To talk much and idly; to prate; hence, to talk lightly and artlessly, like a child; to utter child's talk.
  • (v. t.) To utter as prattle; to babble; as, to prattle treason.
  • (n.) Trifling or childish tattle; empty talk; loquacity on trivial subjects; prate; babble.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The talk coming from senior Tories – at least some of whom have the grace to squirm when questioned on this topic – suggesting that it's all terribly complicated, that it was a long time ago and that even SS members were, in some ways, themselves victims, is uncomfortably close to the kind of prattle we used to hear from those we called Holocaust revisionists.
  • (2) An immensely cerebral man, who trained himself to need only six hours of sleep - believing that a woman should have seven and only a fool eight - Mishcon was not a man given to small talk, nor one who would tolerate prattle for the sake of it.
  • (3) Comparisons between present-day China and the soulless, dreary totalitarian socialist state immortalised in Orwell's masterpiece are difficult to sustain after seeing clutch after clutch of Chinese teenagers, dressed in the latest quasi-Japanophile fashion, walk down a mobbed Beijing pedestrian shopping arcade nibbling at bouquets of candy floss and prattling on as if the phrase "commodity fetishism" had never crossed their young lips.
  • (4) The opening prattle this week is all about the seven deadly sins.
  • (5) I think they're about to escort me from the building for prattling on in an unGuardian manner.
  • (6) Melancholia itself would have been talking point enough without Von Trier's prattling.
  • (7) These days depression is the stuff of postprandial dinner-party prattle, but Plath explored the condition with no sense of its being a "condition" that others shared, no established therapeutic vocabulary, and no Prozac.
  • (8) The South Americans have played 25 games, and are guaranteed to play two more including tomorrow's match • Three of Diego Forlán's four goals in World Cup finals history have come from outside the box 7:10pm: As ITV's panel prattling on about how surprising it is to see harmony in the Dutch camp - exagerrating the divisions of the past and reinforcing the view that English society remains stubbornly anti-intellectual (and anti-male knitting), afraid of anyone who does not fear to speak his mind - let's see what's happening in Uruguay.
  • (9) Anyway, I won't prattle on for there is more live action to be found: San Jose Earthquakes vs LA Galaxy is about to kick off.
  • (10) Or it could be that the Sun loves me when I'm a prattling, giggling, Essex boy "Shagger of the Year", when I'm in my proper place, beneath vacuous headlines, herding their flock towards dumb lingo and crap bingo, when I'm being cheeky on MTV or even unwisely invading answerphones, in a way that many would argue, is less offensive than the manner that they are alleged to have done.
  • (11) Inexperienced MPs who prattle on about deeper UK involvement in Syria don’t yet grasp how merely symbolic much of it is nowadays.
  • (12) When I hear him prattle on inanely I can imagine how Neil Lennon felt when the Geordie dullard kicked him in the head."
  • (13) 2.30pm BST If you'd like to see me, Ian Prior, Barry Glendenning and Owen Gibson prattling on in front of a camera about Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, then you're in luck!
  • (14) The forced cheerfulness of Nicholson's earlier scenes with the hotel manager are a sharp contrast to the sense of anger and tension as he drives and listens to his wife and son prattle on.

Talk


Definition:

  • (n.) To utter words; esp., to converse familiarly; to speak, as in familiar discourse, when two or more persons interchange thoughts.
  • (n.) To confer; to reason; to consult.
  • (n.) To prate; to speak impertinently.
  • (v. t.) To speak freely; to use for conversing or communicating; as, to talk French.
  • (v. t.) To deliver in talking; to speak; to utter; to make a subject of conversation; as, to talk nonsense; to talk politics.
  • (v. t.) To consume or spend in talking; -- often followed by away; as, to talk away an evening.
  • (v. t.) To cause to be or become by talking.
  • (n.) The act of talking; especially, familiar converse; mutual discourse; that which is uttered, especially in familiar conversation, or the mutual converse of two or more.
  • (n.) Report; rumor; as, to hear talk of war.
  • (n.) Subject of discourse; as, his achievment is the talk of the town.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) You lot have got real issues to talk about and deal with.
  • (2) In the bars of Antwerp and the cafes of Bruges, the talk is less of Christmas markets and hot chocolate than of the rising cost of financing a national debt which stands at 100% of annual national income.
  • (3) Another interested party, the University of Miami, had been in talks with the Beckham group over the potential for a shared stadium project.
  • (4) Mike Ashley told Lee Charnley that maybe he could talk with me last week but I said: ‘Listen, we cannot say too much so I think it’s better if we wait.’ The message Mike Ashley is sending is quite positive, but it was better to talk after we play Tottenham.” Benítez will ask Ashley for written assurances over his transfer budget, control of transfers and other spheres of club autonomy, but can also reassure the owner that the prospect of managing in the second tier holds few fears for him.
  • (5) I remember talking to an investment banker about what it felt like in the City before the closure of Lehman Brothers.
  • (6) Do [MPs] remember the madness of those advertisements that talked of the cool fresh mountain air of menthol cigarettes?
  • (7) Peter Stott of the Met Office, who led the study, said: "With global warming we're talking about very big changes in the overall water cycle.
  • (8) A Palestinian delegation was to hold truce talks on Sunday in Cairo with senior US and Egyptian officials, but Israel has said it sees no point in sending its negotiators to the meeting, citing what it says are Hamas breaches of previous agreed truces.
  • (9) The surge the prime minister talks about can only be achieved by coordinating assets across 43 forces.
  • (10) Others said it might appeal to Russia, Assad's chief ally, which backs talks between the regime and the opposition.
  • (11) Nick Mabey, head of the E3G climate thinktank in London, said without US action there were risks talks would stall.
  • (12) The local guide led us down a rough, uneven pathway, talking as he went.
  • (13) Pekka Isosomppi Press counsellor, Finnish embassy, London • It may have been said tongue in cheek, but I must correct Michael Booth on one thing – his claim that no one talks about cricket in Denmark .
  • (14) Families believed that physicians would not listen (13% of sample), would not talk openly (32%), attempted to mislead them (48%), or did not warn about long-term neurodevelopmental problems (70%).
  • (15) It's the roughly $2bn in revenue grossed by his blockbuster movies, some of which he had to be talked into making.
  • (16) The only thing the media will talk about in the hours and days after the debate will be Trump’s refusal to say he will accept the results of the election, making him appear small, petty and conspiratorial.
  • (17) Now there is talk of adding a range of ultra-trendy kale chips and kale shakes to the menu as well as encouraging customers to design their own bespoke burger.
  • (18) He said: "I don't want to talk any more about politics for one reason because I'm not in the House[es] of Parliament, I'm not a political person, I will talk about only football."
  • (19) China's relations with the NTC were strained last week when it emerged Chinese arms firms had talked to Muammar Gaddafi's representatives about weapons sales .
  • (20) "I was in the car with Matthew and he held out his phone and said: 'We need to talk about this' with a very serious face, and my immediate thought was somebody had found where I lived and had made a direct threat.